Because virtually all upscale Chinese restaurants serve shark's fin soup, I'm happy about the didactic shark exhibit in Singapore, which had earlier waged a campaign to avoid shark's fin soup (a wedding tradition as entrenched as diamond rings), and wish that the exhibit were in Hong Kong and China (as well as Rob Stewart's Sharkwater film).

Image: 'Chiu Chou Shark Fin Restaurant' in Hong Kong, 12.2010

BackgroundEach year almost 100 million sharks are killed to make shark's fin soup. Many times a shark is dragged onto a boat and its fins cut off, then tossed back into the ocean while it dies a slow and painful death. This practice is not only cruel but wasteful [www.sharkwater.com]. Sharks have the most mercury compared to other fishes, since they're top of the food chain and toxins (e.g. mercury from our pollution of the ocean) accumulate in their system as they eat other animals. Mercury is a neural toxin that damages the brain and nervous system.

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An interesting video of swimming with tiger sharks (not the cuddly kind, unlike the reef or nurse sharks), however it's not advisable to hand-feed sharks. Similar to feeding bears, it's not good for the bears or the sharks as it changes their natural behavior. The shark opens and closes its mouth to take in water to breathe www.dailyscubadiving.com/year-2009-is-declared-year-of-sharks.